


Can't Stop the Jingle Bells

by eRHa



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Love Live Secret Santa 2018, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 15:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17226308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eRHa/pseuds/eRHa
Summary: It's the most sentimental time of the year in You and Riko's apartment, as all of Aqours gathers once again to celebrate their bonds.(Secret Santa gift for @dsp8cecomet on tumblr!)





	Can't Stop the Jingle Bells

**Author's Note:**

> This is a LL! Secret Santa gift for @dsp8cecomet on Tumblr! I hope you enjoy it, I did my best and I'm sorry you had to wait for so long!

It was a beautiful, snowy Christmas Eve day, and You had spent the entire day so far in the kitchen, waking up at the crack of dawn (which, the middle of winter as it were, happened a quarter past eight) to get her apartment ready to welcome her friends for the annual Christmas party. The previous year they were invited to the Kurosawa estate, where Dia and Ruby blew everyone away with the level of preparation when it came to the dishes. However, they fell a bit short on the festive spirit, so You wanted to pick up the slack this year and make it really feel like it's Christmas Eve.

It was nearing two in the afternoon, and the large table was fully set with several plates stacked one upon another overneath the large, white, decorative seasonal tablecloth. A large Christmas tree had been set up and properly decorated for the occasion, complete with twinkling baubles, lights of all colors winking in and out, fake snow over and underneath the branches, gold and silver garland woven around the middle parts of the tree, with a beautiful, hand-crafted fallen angel on top of it.

Soft, acapella festive songs were playing through the speakers of You's laptop she set up in the corner, on a drawer, away from the table and tree, closer to the balcony door. Jingle Bells ga Tomaranai, as well as Seinaru Hi no Inori were inserted into the playlist, hitting that nostalgic chord in You's heart. She was reminiscing her idol days with a smile on her face, staving away the boredom of repeating mundane tasks while cooking.

Snapping open the lid of a can, You held a hand to its contents and tipped it over, letting the watery syrup from the canned fruits soak into the sink. Her right hand sticky from the contact, she picked the strawberries out of the container, and set them aside on a small plate, plucking one of them before letting them sit.

"Yum!" She cheered, popping a sweet, syrupy strawberry into her mouth and chewing on the sugary goodness, wincing at the unexpected sourness hitting her tastebuds after two chews. Yoshiko would be happy.

After quickly washing her hands (but not before snacking on another strawberry or two!) she got the rest of the ingredients out - including the prepared earlier sponge cake, also some whipped cream, milk, two bars of chocolate and peach jello she put into the fridge to chill yesterday.

Her work on the Christmas cake didn't go too far - just as she started pouring a bit of milk into a saucepan to heat it up along with the chocolate, the doorbell rang. Putting everything down and wiping her hands on a towel, she walked out of the kitchen and through the Christmas-themed refurbished living room, coming up to the door. Opening it, she came face to face with her girlfriend, who was completely loaded with groceries.

You stepped to the side, letting Riko in and taking one of the plastic bags from her hands. She could see a few products in the back, including eggs, leek, parmesan, and the like. The woman was in a hurry, giving You a peck on the cheek and rushing past her with the remaining three bags.

"Hey honey, got everything you need?" She called, following the redhead to the kitchen with a smile on her face. Riko was unloading all the groceries and putting them to the side, or directly into the fridge, all dependant on what she was planning on making first. There was something special about watching her girlfriend of four years hustle and bustle around their apartment.

"Yeah, I just hope I bought enough lamb to have some leftover after Mari gets her hands on it!" Riko half-joked, referring to the Lazio-style Abbacchio, a type of Italian Christmas dish based on roasted lamb and potatoes, a recipe the two looked up prior on the internet. There was no doubt the blonde would bring her own dishes to the party, just like she always had, but they wanted to surprise her in a nice way.

"How about we take care of something else, first, before you get your hands dirty with that?" You asked, coming up on Riko and hugging her from behind around the abdomen. The latter turned around with a questioning look on her face, one eyebrow raised. "Something… wrapped in a ribbon, maybe?"

A small 'ah' of understanding came from Riko as You turned around and leaned down, opening a cupboard and grabbing a little something from it. When she turned around, Riko was already holding a package of average size.

"You first!" Riko said, handing her gift over. You put down the slightly larger, soft bundle she herself had prepared onto the table, taking Riko's gift into her hands and gently undoing the ribbon… And tearing into the paper with childish vigor and enthusiasm, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree.

You looked over the unpackaged gift, at first admiring the nice material, colors and writing before catching on with what it was. It was an album-- a photo album! In golden cursive, the writing on top read Family Album. Riko looked on apprehensively as You leafed through childhood photos of both women, finding her voice when You started tearing up as she got to their first shared photos. The first time they worked on a song, a few photos from trips to Tokyo and post-Live snapshots, graduation day, and many, many parties and other such occasions over the years.

"There's 23 years of our lives in here so far, barely filling over a quarter of the album… Let's fill the rest of it. Together." Riko spoke up, just in time to have You leaf over to the last filled page, to a group photo of all nine Aqours members posing during Dia and Hanamaru's wedding two months ago. 'So cheesy' You wanted to say, but she couldn't speak up through the thick haze coming over her eyes. Must be the onions.

There was a very thick sheet of yet to be used clear pages in the large album. You jumped into Riko's arms with a cry, full-on bawling at this point into the taller girl's shoulder as Riko soothingly petted her girlfriend's long hair, hugging her tight.

"Merry Christmas, You."

"And-" sniffle "And to think I just sewed you a sweater and bought you socks… You win this one, honey." You laughed to herself and Riko tightened the hug, pulling You even closer to herself, the height difference between them more obvious than ever. For, you see, You stopped growing after her high school growth spurt as a first year, where Riko steadily outgrew their seniors.

"I don't care that it's just a sweater, sweetie. I'm going to love every itchy, scratchy inch of it!" Riko reassured the other girl, pressing their foreheads together. You took a step back and handed the package over to her girlfriend, before running to their bedroom to put the album away with a smug smirk on her face.

When she returned, Riko had the green, red and white sweater on, sporting it in its whole thick woolly goodness. You's smile, however, widened at the jewelry in her girlfriend's hands, and the shocked, amazed look on her face.

As it turned out, the sailor hid several beautiful trinkets inside the socks! An alluring pearl necklace, a beautiful ring adorned by small sapphires, and a charming ruby necklace were gifts she had been saving up for through the year.

"You-chan, they're... they're beautiful!" Riko exclaimed, pressing the pearls against her neck. However, the gift wasn't in any way a soulless, uninspired purchase of expensive trinkets, gifted for a lack of knowing any other wants. It was all planned and thought out, down to the artistic patterns on the ring and necklace.

Through her several year-long career as a piano performer, Riko had amassed quite the hoard of beautiful decorations for her custom-made dresses, and each appearance on stage was met with new expectations for her appearance. And, shortly after it became a thing, the piano prodigy started enjoying awing her audiences with not only her playing, but also her dashing looks.

After playing around with their gifts for a few more minutes, the two got back to work on the dishes. You finished up the Christmas cake and helped Riko with the roasted lamb, letting it sit in the oven to keep the heat. The redhead was working on stuffed eggs, and You was about to get to work on Poppy-seed pasta before the doorbell rang again.

"It's probably Ruby and Yocchan, they promised to help with the fried chicken!" Riko called after You, who had already gone to check the door. Lo and behold, Riko was right in her guess - Yoshiko and Ruby both came in with season's greetings and several bags of gifts they left for You to unload under the Christmas tree.

The duo often lounged about in You and Riko's apartment, and so, being quite comfortable with the place, they easily fell in tandem with Riko in the kitchen, while the Watanabe woman was left with the task of figuring out just how to place all the gifts under the tree. She had to consider the five people that were still missing from the party, which meant that quite a bit of space had to be left for them to put their presents in.

Meanwhile, the three girls in the kitchen made small talk while working on the dishes.

"So… Did she like it?" Yoshiko pestered Riko for details regarding the older woman's gift to her beloved. After all, Yoshiko was the one who gave her the idea for a sappy, sentimental gift that wasn't a song with dedication. "Probably better of a gift than a song for the fourth time, ha!"

"Shut it, you!" Riko giggled and nudged Yoshiko with her elbow for the ceaseless teasing all year round when it came to her gifts of choice. "It's not like you two are any better, you know!"

Ruby took a personal affront to the following, stabbing the large knife she had been cutting meat with into the chicken breast, glaring at Riko.

"Riko-chan, I'll have you know that Yoshi's coupons for a massage are the best thing I could ever ask for!"

Riko quirked an eyebrow at that, a smug smile coming onto her face. "I suppose you don't mind if I borrow these hands of hers, then? I have a few sore muscles here and there, you know~!"

Ruby's face turned a dangerous shade of scarlet at that, grabbing Yoshiko's hands with her own, smaller palms and holding them to her chest. She shot a glare at Riko and puffed her cheeks out, causing the older redhead to lose it and burst out laughing.

"Work your body's quirks out with You-chan instead!!" Ruby squeaked in an adorable voice as Yoshiko joined the teasing, the two girls teaming up on the taller Kurosawa girl, their previous task long-forgotten.

The hour was nearing five and it was getting dark and chilly outside, almost everyone having gathered by the grand table. Dia, Kanan and Mari had arrived together, almost burying You in the amount of gifts they brought with them. Packages, long boxes, small misshapen bundles and other types of presents were stacked up to nearly half the height of the tree - several fragile baubles have already been knocked off and smashed on the floor, causing Riko no small amount of grief, Chika having hand-painted some of them.

Chika herself came in not soon after everything was done, carrying the scent of mikans and several crates of the fruit with herself, thankfully somehow having not forgotten about the actual gifts themselves.

Ruby was running to and fro, carrying in the smaller dishes from the kitchen while everyone busied themselves with small talk over cider and eggnog waiting for Hanamaru to arrive. Dia frantically kept checking her watch and phone, checking for any news from her wife in regards to her arrival in Numazu. Hanamaru had become a well-known author of several bestselling books featuring romance, and the past month was spent on a tour all around Japan that featured book signings, con appearances and more.

"I'm going to call her." She spoke up for the seventh time in the past ten minutes. Mari put her hand over Dia's wrist and lowered it along with the younger girl's phone, shooting her a stern glance that spoke volumes about how done she was with the worrywart's behavior.

"But--" Dia started, but Kanan put a hand over her mouth, effectively shutting her up. The desperate, cornered Kurosawa gave her a dangerous glare, Kanan pulling her hand back just in time to avoid having it bitten.

Chika giggled at the older three girls' antics before turning back to the album o

in her lap as she went through the photos in it. Photos of Riko's first piano recital and You's first swimming competition were next to each other, the timeframe between those two events set surprisingly close.

"Ah, you two used to be so cute!" She called out to the party hosts, grabbing their attention away from Yoshiko and Ruby's cute bickering about who should carry the heavier dishes. "Now look at you, ya wrinkled old ladies!"

Brow furrowing, You retaliated by going for her sides, Riko joining in by attacking her cheeks, the two pinching and tickling her until she said uncle and apologized. Disgruntled, she helped herself to several mikan, gazing longingly and salivating at the cake in front of her.

Beep beep.

It was a message notification coming from Dia's phone, the Kurosawa family business owner grabbing for it with speed unseen before by her friends. Scanning the text of the message, she stood up and dashed away towards the door, grabbing her coat from the hanger and running out of the flat.

"Um." Came from Kanan, an awakward silence coming over the party. She grabbed her phone and dialed Dia. After two signals, the other girl picked up.

"What's happening? Oh, okay. It's fine. Yeah, you just worried us, is all. 'Kay, come back soon, you two, it's freezing out there!"

Kanan cut the call with a smile, turning around in her chair to put the phone back in her bag, coming face to face with a group of expectant, worried faces. Chika had a piece of mikan halfway in her mouth, her eyes betraying a nervousness for her friends' wellbeing.

"A-Ahaha, I guess everyone was worried? It's fine, it's fine! Dia is coming back with Maru."

Relief flooded throughout the room, the six girls slowly easing back into the flow of previous conversations. Yoshiko furiously smacked Chika's back, the latter choking on the earlier piece of fruit. Ruby finally got to sit down, relaxing her legs after spending the past few hours incessantly working on the preparations. Mari was patting the redhead's shoulders and telling her what a good, cute girl she is, causing Kanan to look over at them, a hint of jealousy in her eyes and a cute pout betraying her to You, who started teasing the other girl.

And then, the doorbell rang. Everyone perked up, turning to the door as Riko stood up open it. Moving to the side, she let Dia, along with a horribly soaked Hanamaru, in. The brunette hung her coat up, and, with a weary smile, called out.

"I'm home, zura!"

"Welcome home!" A chorus of smiling faces called out to her, happy to see her after far too long.

The evening turned to night, as the nine girls of Aqours celebrated everything there was to be thankful for, eating and drinking to their hearts' content with such staple Christmas classics such as Snow halation playing in the background. A cheer went up for their close bond of something more than mere friendship, and glasses were clinked together, to another five years and beyond.


End file.
